The recent and explosive growth of online communications using computers to link into vast networks has dramatically changed the landscape as it relates to the way certain firms do business. Traditional modes of distributing information to employees and customers are being displaced with the new paradigm created by remote computer links to networks for a full spectrum of information services. Customers are now able to access account information and projections, salesmen access updated news and customer reports, and management communicates to staff and vendors in a simplified and uniform manner using the Internet and now well established browser technology.
This growth in the new applications of online communications has placed new demands on existing computer systems operated by the business and service organizations attempting to take advantage of online service access. Smaller companies have mostly farmed out their new online data demands to Internet service providers (ISPs), that provide a narrow set of online data distribution tools and capabilities. This, however, is not a solution for larger, integrated service firms as their current and future demands for data processing and distribution across linked networks and the Internet require sophisticated systems that include the ability to expand in a seamless and relatively painless manner.
This is particularly true for large financial service companies. These firms provide a full spectrum of diverse financial services to a broad group of clients, both national and international, with regional offices spread throughout the country and in most major international markets. Existing computer systems include large and powerful mainframe computers with strong centralized data processing capabilities, and in conjunction with these mainframes, one or more networks (LAN and/or WAN structures) linking together rings of PC-based workstations.
These existing computer systems have evolved over the years with the newer software systems integrated within the legacy software applications. Accordingly, present computer systems include older programs and databases intermixed with more recent software systems, such as computer networks. Applications, data, and capabilities are thus spread amongst these various hardware systems each of which involves a level of independent operation and has a unique interface.
This environment has created a variety of problems in attempting to implement the above-noted online capabilities for system wide access. Programmers developing new services linking to a home page or the like must provide all the programming to effect the service and navigate the intricacies of the network environment.
To expedite the programming of new services that are able to take advantage of Internet based communications, a common architecture that provides the requisite communication protocols for network implementation would substantially reduce the amount of time and effort required to build new applications and services. A common architecture provides the appropriate interface structures for allowing different programs to communicate with each other and pass data therebetween.
Efforts to develop a common architecture that allows the free flow of data and permits seamless communication and scaling have met with mixed results. Products exist that provide some of the above functionality, such as DCE (distributed computing environment), CORBA (common object request broker architecture), and DCOM (distributed common object module). These systems provide meaningful advance but suffer problems in terms of handling legacy applications and overhead requirements.
Recently, the inventors here developed a system having singular functionality called the Workstation Host Access Manager (WHAM), which was a service that permitted access to mainframe CICS applications, 3270 terminal access, and IBM.RTM.'s External Call Interface (ECI). This application has been a successful implementation, but is narrowly focused. Indeed, the present invention is based on the basic approach undertaken in WHAM, but expanded to address numerous ancillary environments and provide a more robust system design framework.